Training Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending 2008-08-24:
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Sunday Aug 24 | ||
| Adventure Racing race 8:51:00 [3] ** | |
| Coast Raid Day 4
I usually handle sleep deprivation very well (it's my normal lifestyle), but not today. After 30 hrs of racing over 3 days and just 2.5 hrs of sleep last night, I felt light-headed and sleepy until mid-afternoon. In retrospect, I should have taken wake-up pills or eaten some chocolate espresso beans, but I was so tired that it didn't occur to me. As a result, I lagged behind more than usual on the road biking (my weakest discipline in this race), but otherwise, I held my own. Looking back at the GPS tracks, I navigated well on the long trek, but I was happy to leave the map in Tiny's hands for the final short trek. It wasn't just me - everyone looked bagged this morning, including the normally dashing Phatty. 
Even our friends on Team XTreme South Africa at the front of the pack were concerned about the final day of racing. 
We biked to our kayaks a few km away, inflated them, then headed out onto the sunny, windy Baie des Belles Amours to pick up two CPs located by little fishing houses. There were some decent swells on the ocean today, but we were very comfortable in the kayaks by this point. They're very stable and reasonably quick for what they are, but it is possible to inflate them with improper alignment, and then you get a boat that tries to turn all the time. (This happened to one of the Team Salomon Suunto boats today, and it happened to 'Bent and me on Day 2.) We enjoyed our last kayaking session on the Lower North Shore - for now! If someone wanted to run kayak tours here, it would be an awesome destination. Based on our experience, the locals would be very supportive, and we've done enough kayak trips to know that this is truly a world class destination. I'd have to look at the maps some more to find protected routes along the coast, as paddling on the open ocean would be a bad idea on most days. We hopped on our bikes to pick up another few CPs on our way to the start of the long trek. We were given a slightly incorrect UTM for the first CP, which led to a few minutes of concern as we hiked with other teams along one pond to the adjacent one, where we found the flag. In an event with so many CPs over five long race stages, it's actually amazing that there weren't more missing or misplaced CPs. From here, it was a long trek where we tried to stay high and out of trouble. We could always see the next point we wanted to aim for, and the challenge was to make it there without getting stalled by prickly patches of tuckamore, which often lurked in hidden gullies that we only saw when we got up close. Bushwhacking through this stuff made me "pine" for the forests of home. Usually we can just lean and push to move through thick bush, but in this stuff, it was easy to get your foot caught under something because of the twists and turns in the branches and trunks. Even more fun were the frequent surprise holes. One minute you'd be walking beside a teammate chatting away, and the next minute, he or she would drop half a meter into a hidden creek with a shocked "Aaaaahh!?!". 
The highlight of this trek was a spectacular long, rocky spur that we followed down to the sea. Unfortunately Pixie felt ill during this section and didn't enjoy it as much as she normally would. On the bright side, Tiny had recovered nicely from feeling sick last night and this morning, and 'Bent was perking up around the same time after over-exerting himself on the bike tow earlier. (Apparently I need to lose weight.) 
Walking by the sea here was incredible. 
Then we headed up - *way* up - to find one more CP before returning to our bikes at the road. Our next stop was a zip line at beautiful Brador Falls, and I think someone must have put an ad in the paper because nearly everyone on the Lower North Shore was there to cheer us on. 'Bent and I did the zip. Back in the parking lot, someone asked Tiny to pose for a photo with some children, and one of the local mayors chatted with him and Pixie. The mayor explained that everyone had been talking about the Coast Raid for the past year, and it had been really good for morale to have the first-ever international event in this area at a time when the economy has become difficult because of the decline of the fisheries. Once again, we realized how lucky we were to be part of something that was much more than a race. This pic shows me crossing the zip line over the waterfall, with photographer Luis Moreira of Breathe Magazine hanging on the other rope. 
We had a road ride along the coast past the village of Brador, then we headed inland to pick up CPs in a complex area of ATV trails. Tiny nailed the difficult nav, and we made some time in here. Between the zip line and the technical bike riding, I was awake by this point - and happy to be close to the finish line. 
We rode to a TA outside of town where we had the option of pushing our bike over a low, tundra-covered mountain, which would give us a faster trip back to town when we hit the ATV trail on the far side. We decided to go on foot, since the descent to the sea looked cliffy, and the ATV trail section was under 2 km. As it turned out, we were the last team allowed to go up the mountain, since the wind was high (80 kph, we heard later) and the clouds continued rolling in to create white-out conditions. We met the Yoga Slackers up there, the team that ultimately won the mixed 4-person category. They had done the advanced section, and they had their bikes on the mountain. In this boggy, rocky terrain, we were able to stay even or ahead of them on foot for quite a long time without any running at all. 
At last we were on the final stretch of ATV trail leading to Blanc-Sablon. 
We did our only running of the entire race when we got two blocks from the finish at the school. As we approached the finish line, the race director handed us two huge flags - Canadian flag and Ontario flag. All teams were handed the flags from their respective countries at the finish - U.S., Brazil, Italy, South Africa and France. (I think that's the full list.) We were immediately handed a jumbo bottle of beer and ushered onto a podium, where photographers, volunteers and dozens of townspeople cheered and took photos. 
After hot showers, we were treated to yet another fantastic, home-cooked buffet. A truly wonderful touch was that the organizers had invited a number of local people to attend the race banquet, including the ladies who had cooked the amazing food for us in St. Paul's and Middle Bay. We were privileged to share our table with locals and exchange stories with them during the evening. One of them pulled out a digital camera and showed us close-up videos he had taken of whales when he was out on his boat yesterday. There were speeches by mayors from along the coast, and one touching comment from the head of the Council of Mayors was, "You have shown us that our area is more beautiful than even *we* knew." At one point we realized that the applause was especially loud, and we looked back to see that the 2nd floor bleachers of the gym were filled with local residents - wow. The huge group of volunteers and race staff (probably as many of them as there were racers) had written a song for the race director, which they presented with gusto. Each team was called up and given a framed certificate showing that they'd completed the Coast Raid, and the top teams received prizes with little fanfare. We cheered loudly for Team Salomon Suunto, who placed a close second in the mixed 4-person category, but the loudest cheers of the night were reserved for Team Harrington Harbour, the locals who had done everyone proud with a respectable result. They were the ones who had come to the race via a 13-hr boat ride along the coast, and one of them had raced in a hockey helmet because he didn't own a bike helmet. The Italian team presented them with new bike helmets from their sponsor - very classy. There was a cool 10-minute video montage of race highlights. A couple of Europeans were here filming the race, and we're told that 20 million people will watch it overseas. Like everything associated with this event, the post-race celebration was a class act and a perfect way to finish this amazing experience. Oh, and the Tree Huggers placed 15th of 19 teams, which exceeded our goal for our adventure vacation! | ||
| C • details to come? 5 | ||
Saturday Aug 23 | ||
| Adventure Racing race 7:50:00 [3] ** | |
| Coast Raid Day 3
Another night in a school gym with new and old friends, followed by another too-early morning. We started with a paddle, which meant that we could inflate and assemble our kayaks before the race clock started. We were back at the familiar St. Paul's federal dock, where we've started our paddling for the past 3 days. Daniel Poirier is skilled at designing compact courses that don't cover a huge area on the map, but still feel interesting and different to the racers. This makes it easier from the race organization, transportation, safety and volunteer coordination perspectives, which in turn makes it easier for us to race in wild places like this. The fastest route this morning involved a 400 meter portage with a climb near the start, but that wasn't consistent with our adventure vacation philosophy, so we joined the minority of teams that chose to paddle extra distance through some beautiful little channels. 
At the end of Grand Lac Sale, we had a 1 km portage to the fish plant. This time we sat the kayaks on our shoulders, which was much easier than hauling them along by the handles at each end. After another few km of paddling, we transitioned to bikes for some hilly riding on inland ATV trails. At this CP, we had to drop our bikes at the end of a trail and hike to a viewpoint. (Daniel likes to send us to scenic lookouts.) 
We continued to make berry picking a priority. No chance of getting bored with our race food. 
We rode through Middle Bay, which is at the bottom of a big hill. As we whizzed past, the volunteers figured out who we were and held up huge flags for the appropriate country. After climbing out of town on the far side, we dropped our bikes at a point and headed out for a long trek on a beautiful, flat, open peninsula. The nicest part of today's trek took us along the seashore where we found a lot of whale bones. 
Including part of a skull. 
The farthest CP was this little fishing house on a remote point. Wow, I could hang out here for days watching the ocean. 
We didn't need to go down to the ocean as early as we did, but it was much more entertaining to walk there. 
Here we are, racing hard. 
After a long, flat, boggy walk that was surprisingly hard on our leg muscles, followed by a short coasteering section and a little climb over a rocky hill, we were back at our bikes for the final ride into the village of Middle Bay, population 30. They had decorated a house in the centre of town to welcome us. We made the cut-off for the Extreme section, but once again we decided to take a pass on it. 
Several of them had made up T-shirts saying "Middle Bay welcomes the Coast Raid". They collected our autographs on their backs! 
Everyone in this tiny village was really friendly and very kind to us. The population is dwindling as people move elsewhere to find work with the decline of the fisheries, or else they want to be closer to health care facilities. The school is closed, and children need to go to St. Paul's or Blanc-Sablon. But they live in one of the most beautiful seaside locations you could imagine. (When I said this, one lady jokingly offered to sell me her house on the spot.) 
Thanks to our berry-picking ways, the small community centre was full of racers by the time we arrived, so the locals opened up their church for us. It felt a little strange to hang our wet underwear over the pews to dry, but it turned out that the teams at the back of the pack got the luxury accommodation option this time! 
A number of local families put on an amazing buffet for us at the Middle Bay Interpretive Centre. This photo shows just one of a number of tables, and the meal was accompanied by fresh coffee, a big cooler of beer, and so on. Just like last night, we were spoiled rotten, and we felt humbled by the generosity of these people as they welcomed us to their amazing little corner of Canada. 
With full stomachs, it was time to return to the church for a little rest before picking up our maps for the night section, which would start at 10 p.m. | ||
| Adventure Racing race 2:49:00 [3] ** | |
| Coast Raid Night 3
The only night stage of this year's event was a 3-hour rogaine running from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. We could use any combination of biking or trekking to reach 7 CPs. If you came back after 3 hrs, you got credit for finding all CPs, even if you hadn't. So the only way to gain an advantage over other teams on this section was to find all CPs and come in under 3 hrs. We rode west from Middle Bay up the steep hill. Most of the local residents were there to see us off, and many of them stayed up past 1 a.m. to welcome the last finishers. Tiny led us to a few CPs on bike, and my new bike shoes finally let me down on one climb where I tipped over and didn't unclip before I hit a rock with my upper shin. This wouldn't have been so bad if I had only done it once, but I managed to do it twice, landing on the same spot. Ouch, it's still painful and swollen after a week of recovery. 
I screwed up on the night trek, leading us into the wrong valley so that we had to climb over a rocky hill to get to the right valley. We probably lost 10 minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Because of the tuckamore, it is never easy to follow a compass bearing in this country. In the daytime, I would often choose a high, far-away point on my bearing, then we would choose micro-routes around vegetation while keeping our target in sight. But of course, this didn't work at night, so I had to try to keep track of how far the vegetation had pushed us right or left. The next CP and our return to the road went smoothly, once I got the hang of it. Our final section was some coasteering, which we obviously should have done first. We knew the tide was rising, but we'd underestimated the effect it would have in this cliffy area. After all that, we returned to the start with 11 minutes to spare - and ready to work on maps for the next morning. Tiny started to work with me, but got sick and headed to bed in hopes of feeling better. I stayed up till 2:30 a.m. doing maps and preparing my pack for the next day. The alarm was set for 5 a.m. - yikes. | ||
Friday Aug 22 | ||
| Adventure Racing 10:17:00 [3] ** | |
| Coast Raid Day 2
As Leanimal explained in her excellent race report, a major highlight of this stage race was the opportunity to stop in North Shore villages and enjoy the warm local welcome and the camaraderie of other racers from North and South America and Europe. Old Fort - where the highway ends - was beautiful in spite of a few black flies. 
We - and a lot of damp gear - spent the night in the cozy school gym, sharing stories and laughs with other teams. One local fellow came by to collect our autographs, but we tried our best to stay humble. 
Most of the volunteers stayed in other parts of the school, including a couple of friendly medics. They bandaged up AndyCam's thumb after his tumble in the tuckamore, but luckily the most serious injury they handled over 4 days was our South African friend Phillipe's foot, which got cut by a mussel shell. It didn't stop his team from placing 3rd overall though! We had a bike start today, and at 7:15 a.m., Old Fort was treated to the tunes that greeted us at every race start. It was a nice energetic playlist, but a short one, and we heard the same songs enough that they will have to become the soundtrack for our slideshow! Can anyone remember the others? Very Superstitious All Star Highway to Hell Black Betty And who could ever forget...? Let's Get It Started We started by biking 12 km to St. Paul's River, mostly on gravel road. There were a few hills, so Pixie and I put Tiny and 'Bent to work towing. We had to inflate our kayaks while the clock was running this time, then we paddled several km out to Ile des Esquimaux, where we took several hours to trek to 4 CPs all over the island. We were never far from the sea, and there were some great views. We passed a little waterfront cabin that I'd love to spend a week at. We were better at blasting through the tuckamore today - and also better at figuring out ways to avoid it. Some of the trekking went across beautiful open terrain. 
And some of it didn't! 
We hopped back in our kayaks for a longer paddle that took us out to a point in a stiff breeze. Tiny had fun getting out of the kayak to punch the passport. 
From there, we decided to use the wind to push us north, then turn into some protected waters that would take us to a place where we could portage over a road, returning to the harbour less than a km from the main dock. It was risky because it wasn't marked as a portage, but we were going to hit it almost exactly at high tide, so we took the chance. It got shallow early, and we had a few minutes of goopy walking through a salt bog, but it was a good route choice at high tide. Apparently, Team Salomon Suunto got there when the tide was lower, and it was a real pain to get through the muck to the road. We hopped back onto our bikes and followed roads to a trail that got narrower and more overgrown until we were just riding on a narrow track while bushwhacking through a tunnel of green. Phew - we hit the TA and dropped our bikes for the next trek. The first CP was on a nearby hilltop with a scenic view. (Daniel Poirier, the course designer, has a wonderful sense of the aesthetic.) 
From here, we bashed our way through the brush to an open hilltop at the base of a cliff where 'Bent went rappelling again. After bashing back to our bikes, we carried on further east of St. Paul's to the fish factory (do they make fish there?) where we were supposed to do a 700 meter adventure swim to Factory Point on a nearby island. Shortly before we arrived, they closed off the swim due to strong currents that had developed, so we never got the chance to pull out our cool pack rafts. We had to visit a new alternate CP on our side of the water, so we just trekked over to get it. Last but not least, we rode back to St. Paul's River in warm evening light - nice! Even better, we learned that people in St. Paul's had prepared a "seafood tasting" for the racers at their museum. Incredible news - we just turned around at the finish line and headed back down the hill. And when we got there, it was like a mid-race hallucination. Huge platters overloaded with different types of seafood, fruit and vegetables - wow. One of them commented that they get bored with snow crab legs and steamed mussels because they eat them all the time. We didn't find it boring! I even managed a nice partidgeberry tart - yum!! At the museum, we learned that St. Paul's is the place where the cod trap was invented - and we also learned that some really, really friendly and generous people live there.  | ||
Thursday Aug 21 | ||
| Note | |
| Online race coverage - including GPS tracking - will be posted from Aug. 21-24 at:
http://www.coastraid.com | ||
| Adventure Racing race 7:36:00 [3] ** | |
| Coast Raid Day 1
We had the team presentation ceremony last night, along with speeches by local dignitaries and the race director. 
The volunteer support for Endurance Aventure events is truly amazing. As an example, the race emcee is a CBC broadcaster who uses a week of vacation time to come. The volunteers all got nice waterproof-breathable Coast Raid jackets, and many of them seem to be related to one another, including some little kids having a terrific time. We all slept at the high school in Blanc-Sablon, then piled into a school bus this morning to drive to the village of St. Paul's River. Before the race started, we inflated our kayaks for the first time and put on our cold water paddling gear. Fortunately, the organizers had allowed plenty of time for this! 
The Advanced Elements kayaks were pretty good for inflatables. They were stable, tracked well and moved at a reasonable pace. With a crowd of locals and volunteers cheering us on, the Coast Raid started with a kayak section - about 11 km including a portage of several hundred meters. 
Our team remained happily near the back of the pack. Tiny had promised an adventure vacation to his wife Pixie, and 'Bent and I had agreed to approach the Coast Raid in that manner. So there was no pressure, although we did hope to finish the Raid. Anything beyond that would be gravy, so we took hundreds of photos with the 3 waterproof cameras on our team. On land, we often made brief stops to pick blueberries and bakeapples. We dropped our kayaks in a bay and trekked up a steep hill onto a plateau. It was our first exposure to the boggy ground, fragile sphagnum moss, invisible deep holes and patches of tangled tuckamore that made the treks more challenging than one would expect on relatively open land. 
After locating a couple of checkpoints, we descended to the water for several kilometers of awesome coasteering that led us to a ropes section, then ultimately back to our kayaks. The water was warmer than expected - 10-12C, so the coasteering was chilly, but not deadly. Most of the complaints came from the boys, who whinged about shrinkage. According to one guy, "I've got an inny instead of an outy now!" 
We hopped back into the kayaks for a short paddle to the village of Old Fort, which is where the highway from Blanc-Sablon ends. There are a number of villages to the west of here on the Lower North Shore, but they aren't accessible by car. The one local team in the race had come from Harrington Harbour, and it had taken them 13 hrs by powerboat to get to Blanc-Sablon. This was their first race - impressive! We went up to the local school to pick up our bikes for some orienteering in hilly terrain with spectacular views in gorgeous late afternoon light. We ended up dropping our bikes and hiking through a lake to get to one CP, and we had a fun ride through shallow water along a pebbled lake bottom to reach another CP. Basically, we were wet all day! 
We made it back to the finish line an hour before the cut-off for the Extreme (i.e. advanced) section. We'd agreed earlier that we wouldn't do it today, so we took the 4-hr penalty and let a couple of other teams move ahead of us. This event isn't about results for us, so that was OK. All the teams built little forts in the school gym using chairs and bags, and - with judicious use of ear plugs and eye shades - most of us slept *very* well! | ||
| C • Love the pics 3 | ||
Wednesday Aug 20 | ||
| Event: Raid International Éco EnduranceAventure | ||
| Cycling 55:00 [3] 18.9 km (2:55 / km) | |
With our bikes freshly assembled from their boxes, 'Bent, Tiny, Pixie and I rode to Labrador with our new South African friends, Phillipe and Jeremy. We got a taste of the steep climbs and descents as Hwy 138 follows the coast. I suspect the hills will feel a lot tougher in a few days - and they already felt tough today!
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Tuesday Aug 19 | ||
| Note | |
Several hours in a school bus from Deer Lake to Ste. Barbe in Newfoundland, then 1 hr 45 min by ferry to Blanc-Sablon, Quebec - just a few kilometers west of the Labrador border. The kayaking conditions here would be a tad rough, but fortunately, our race took us through more protected waters!
In case you're uncertain (I know I was!), here is where Quebec's Lower North Shore is: http://www.tourismlowernorthshore.com/villages.asp | ||
Monday Aug 18 | ||
| Trekking 4:15:00 | |
Climbed Gros Morne with 'Bent, Tiny and Pixie. Phatty, Leanimal, STORM and AndyCam joined us at the summit, and we all hiked down together. Great views except when we were on top and clouds rolled in temporarily. We saw several caribou and a *big* moose. We got chatting with another hiker who asked, "Where are you all from? A place called Salomon?"
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